Google Search is starting to feel more like a social experience and that’s a good thing

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Google Search has been around for two decades. As it moves into decade No. 3, some significant changes are set to arrive for the search giant. In the end, these changes could make each of us rethink the entire search concept.

As Mashable was the first to explain, Google Search is going to look much more like social media thanks to the changes. Google’s new Collection feature, for example, looks like something Pinterest created. It lets you save and organize searches around specific topics. In doing so, you can grab stuff and add it to a Collection for later use.

A personalized news feed

The biggest new Google Search feature is the creation of a personalized news feed. When implemented, “Discover” will appear alongside search on Google’s apps in your browser and other platforms.

The use of Google Stories is also expanding and will appear more frequently in search results. Google will now use artificial intelligence to automatically create tappable Stories about specific topics.

Google Search is overhauling the image search experience

Google Images is also getting an overhaul. Thanks to a new ranking algorithm, “evergreen content” will become more prevalent, such as recipes and DIY content. Google Lens is also being integrated into Google Images so that you can search for specific items in photos.

These new features look great and should push Google Search into new directions. Still, I wonder whether the risk is worth it. Google is all about collecting our personal information and selling it to make a buck. In many cases, privacy, be damned.

When looking at these new features through that prism, it’s clear Google’s No. 1 goal hasn’t changed. We are Google’s product, for better or worse, and nothing has changed.

There’s also the question of whether these tools also will have the effect of further pushing Google’s increasingly documented left-wing agenda. Are these changes, for example, less about giving us a slick new Google Search interface, and more about dropping biased articles on the Search page?

We’ll find out soon enough. The Google Search changes are being rolled out over time across multiple platforms. No timeframe for this has yet been announced.

Are you looking forward to seeing these new features or have you moved onto a different search product? Let us know below. 

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